Read Online Dating the Millionaire Doctor by Marion Lennox - Free Book Online

her hands up, breaking his grip. She came close to falling back down into the car—but didn’t. Thankfully. A girl had some pride.
    â€˜I… Thank you,’ she muttered and managed to get herself round to the other side of the car to retrieve her cardboard box.
    â€˜I like your luggage,’ he said, and grinned.
    â€˜Eat your heart out, Mr. Gucci,’ she said, managing a smile in return. ‘This is so next year’s catwalk.’
    â€˜I believe it is,’ he said. ‘If there’s anyone who can start a trend it would be you.’
    â€˜Enough with the compliments,’ she said, feeling…disconcerted. No, more than that, totally flummoxed. ‘You promised me a bath.’
    â€˜I did. Let me carry your box.’
    â€˜I can manage myself,’ she said with an attempt at dignity. ‘Once upon a time I depended on others. I don’t do that any more.’
    â€˜It’s only carrying a box,’ he said mildly.
    â€˜No,’ she said softly, as she carted her belongings up the steps and into the house. ‘Believe me, it’s much, much more.’
    Â 
    She lay back in the vast spa; she let the bubbles float up around her and she felt as if she was floating herself. From here she could see all the way across the valley floor. There were candles lit around her, gardenia with maybe a hint of citrus. The housekeeper had lit them as she’d settled her into the room.
    â€˜And don’t worry about privacy,’ she’d said. ‘There’s oneway glass so you can see forever but no one can see you, even if there was someone outside, which there isn’t. The one-way glass is brilliant. Jake had it installed just after his father died.’
    â€˜Jake did that?’
    â€˜He wants this place to be the best. It was his stepmother’s passion, and we want to carry it on.’
    Jake’s stepmother’s passion… There was a lot here she didn’t understand, that she hadn’t thought through.
    She knew this place had been built by the local doctor and his wife. Charlie McDonald had cared for this community for as long as most people remembered. He’d cared for her mother during her long illness, allowing her to die at home surrounded by her family and her beloved animals. Tori remembered him with deep affection, and with gratitude.
    He’d lived in Combadeen and his wife had run the lodge. The place up on the ridge had been his weekend retreat, so they’d been weekend neighbours. But just after she’d started university he’d retired to the city, and she’d not heard of him until his funeral.
    And now…
    The old doctor was Charlie McDonald. Jake was Jake Hunter.
    Illegitimate? Who knew with mixed families?
    She tried to remember community gossip. There was talk of a son at his funeral. She remembered a faded baby photo on Dr. McDonald’s surgery wall. That must be Jake.
    She’d find out. She had all the time in the world to get it right, she thought dreamily as she sank deeper into bubbles. But then she thought, No, she was only here for a night until she organised something more permanent, and Jake himself would return to New York. There’d be no time for questions.
    The thought left her curiously bereft.
    But at least she could sleep tonight, she reminded herself. She glanced through into the bedroom, at the enormous bed piled with white-on-white eiderdowns and feather pillows. A woman could melt into a bed like this.
    As opposed to melting into a man like Jake Hunter?
    She was delirious. That was the only possible explanation for where her mind was taking her. She was not thinking of doing any melting into any man.
    All she had to do to stop that was to think of Toby. Betrayal. A heartache that would never leave her.
    Jake was different.
    Maybe or maybe not, she thought sharply, but Jake was heading back to New York and he didn’t want to even indulge in five-minute dating, much